Fellowship
Program

The Godrej Design Lab Fellowship Program aims to engage with India’s vibrant design space by empowering pioneering talent to showcase their passion, expertise, and vision.

Since its inception, the program has collaborated with individuals, companies and institutions from across India, supporting projects that span furniture and product design, materials research, social impact, and education. We are proud to have been a part of each fellow’s journey.

Over the years, we have witnessed a deepening and expansion of the Indian design ecosystem. It has grown more multifaceted, interdisciplinary, and purpose-driven. In response, the program has evolved as well, maturing from a platform that once showcased promising work in the interiors space to one that reflects the many forms, functions, and impacts design can take today.

The Fellowship
Journey

In its current form, the fellowship is a one-year, non-residential, grants-based program that seeks to catalyse future leaders within the Indian design ecosystem. It supports practitioners who are poised to create meaningful and innovative impact across diverse domains of design. As the ecosystem continues to shift and grow, the program remains committed to evolving alongside it, offering a pioneering space that responds to the changing contours of design practice in India.

The 2025 Fellows and mentors during that year's retreat held outside Indore.

At its core, the Fellowship Program is about people. Each year begins with an intensive process of identifying emerging talent from across the country. Rather than issuing an open call or hosting a competition, we rely on a wide network of industry experts, course catalogues, social media, shops, and galleries to surface potential fellows. These leads open the door not to applications, but to conversations. Where have they come from? What drives them? Where do they hope to go?

Through these dialogues, we seek to understand how the program can meaningfully intervene, adding value to their professional journey, strengthening their creative practice, and contributing to the broader discourse around design. In selecting fellows, we curate cohorts of diverse yet complementary projects. Individually, fellows demonstrate entrepreneurial spirit, a distinctive voice, and genuine curiosity. Collectively, they represent the breadth, depth, and evolving nature of contemporary design practice in India.

How we
support

A man sitting at a park bench in front of a camper for an interview; mountains form a majestic background. — Project documentation in 2024 during Rahul Bushan's fellowship.

A year of interactions and mentorship

Over the course of the Fellowship year, Godrej Design Lab offers ongoing mentorship, immersive retreats, on-ground documentation, and strategic promotion of the Fellows and their projects. The programme is designed to support Fellows not only through guidance and dialogue, but also by amplifying the ideas, processes, and stories that emerge from their work.

Showcasing at leading creative platforms

Fellowship projects are showcased at our flagship event, Conscious Collective, and through curated opportunities across the year at relevant industry forums, exhibitions, and cultural platforms.

Our team of passionate storytellers, interviewers, videographers, and photographers also travels to the sites where Fellows’ projects unfold, documenting the deeper narratives of place, material, and people that shape the work.

Funding

Project funding is available up to ₹10 lakh. Our funding model is flexible and evaluated on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the scope, scale, and potential impact of each project.

Fellowship
Recipients

2026 Fellows

Name

Discipline

Description

Imon Raza
Partner, Atelier Arth; Visiting Faculty, CEPT University
Dr. Priyanka Das Rajkakati
Partner, Atelier Arth

Sebastián Trujillo-Torres
Founder, Chaal Chaal Agency
Kruti Shah
Founder, Chaal Chaal Agency

Dhwani Mehta
Founder & Creative Director, Leel

Rubah Musvee
Founder, Lila

Raghav Kumar
Co-Founder, Tiny Farm Lab
Ansh Kumar
Co-Founder, Tiny Farm Lab

Samidha Patil
Partner, urbz
Kareena Kochery
Partner, urbz

2025 Fellows

Name

Discipline

Description

Creating Key building components through a mix of materials and fabrication technologies. The studio aims to create a series of full-scale tectonic assemblies, focusing on integrating clay and complementary material systems such as timber, metal and composites. Rooted in the new Computation Design Program.

Neel Jain
Co-Founder, andlabs Visiting Faculty, CEPT University
Maulik Oza
Founder, MO Ceramic And Design Co-Founder, Clay Club Innovations Visiting Faculty, CEPT University
Karan Verma
Co-Founder, a.Quest Visiting Faculty, CEPT University
Krunal Patel
Co-Founder, Episteme Designs Visiting Faculty, CEPT University

Developing a budding system for their design practice which leverages both pre-fab competent and local, site-sources materials. Culminating in a 1:1 wall structure at CC25.

Anne Geenen
Founder, Site Practice

Develop a modern take on the traditional Indian air circulator. The grant enables them to engineer its mechanical systems and showcase how this product can be highly flexible "canvas" for design expression and integration.

Deeptashree Saha
Co-Founder, The Vernacular Moder
Abhirup Dutta
Co-Founder, The Vernacular Modern

Responding to the needs of their customers, Taro wants to expand and deepen their line of furniture buy creating a line in Aluminum. This would entire a lot of high-tech detailing and product development.

Shikha Rentala
Founder, Taro Collective
Federico Fraternale
Founder, Taro Collective
Marco Grimandi
Founder, Taro Collective

This grant would enable a serious of workshops in their two cities and Mumbai focusing on creative coding and performance which explores issues of the city. This would culminate in a live performance at CC25.

Computational Mama
Founder, Ajaibghar
Nanditi Khilnani
Founder, Ajaibghar

Creating their next product range as canopies, tents, etc. while using their established textile practices. Culminating in a large tent/fabric structure at CC25.

Brinda Dudhat
Founder, Morii Design
Kabir
Founder, Morii Design

2024 Fellows

Name

Discipline

Description

Rahul, an architect leveraging vernacular, resilient building techniques, has written a book which compiles his career, creative, and industry lessons, making them accessible to a wider audience.

Rahul Bushan
Founder, NORTH

The Murubi team developed a line of furniture and products which utilize the invasive water hyacinth.

Shwetha Iyengar
Co-Founder, Murubi
Jaymin Panchasara
Co-Founder, Murubi

The team from Architecture for Dialogue worked on a project to address in-home comfort and air quality through low-cost, retrofit, architectural solutions.